Real Estate Tips – Brent Jones, Real Estate Sales Representative – RE/MAX Niagara Realty Ltd., Brokerage – Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada

Is housing in Fort Erie affordable for the average family?

January 7, 2020 By Brent Jones

When I promote a new listing on Facebook, I often receive comments from local users like…

Housing prices in Fort Erie have gone crazy. I’ve lived and worked here all my life but I won’t be able to afford to retire here.

Or…

How are young families ever supposed to be able to buy their first house?

Or…

I’m barely getting by as it is. I’ll never be able to buy a home of my own.

You get the idea.

While concerns about affordable housing are perfectly valid — and I will touch on this later — I thought I’d take a moment to dive into what the average household (or family) can realistically afford in this area.

Why list your home with Brent Jones?

August 22, 2019 By Brent Jones

I’ll be the first to admit that, with more than 1,000 active realtors in Niagara Region, you could throw a rock in just about any direction and hit one of us.

So, if you’re thinking of selling your home, why should you choose me, Brent Jones, to list it?

In this short article, I intend to answer that very question for you.

Are realtors in Ontario a bunch of greedy pigs?

August 2, 2019 By Brent Jones

Earlier this week, I met with a potential seller client to discuss listing his home for sale.

We had a conversation about commission and it went a little something like this:

Seller: What’s your fee?

Me: Six percent, if I thought your home would be difficult to sell. But, since I’m pretty confident I can sell your home relatively fast, I’ll only take five percent.

Seller: Five? (taps his fingers on the kitchen table, thinking) So, if you sell my house for $400,000, you get $20,000?

Me: I don’t get to keep all of it, but you’ve got the right idea.

Seller: That seems a bit…steep. Can you do any better, Brent?

Any better? Part of me wanted to reply with, “Better? Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea what selling your home involves?”

But, of course, I was polite. I simply grabbed a pen and paper and began to break down for him exactly what a typical real estate transaction (in my market) looks like.Continue Reading

5 Things to Look for When Viewing an Older Home

August 1, 2019 By Brent Jones

It almost goes without saying that, when viewing a property of any age or condition, a home inspection is an excellent idea.

This will help to uncover latent defects — the type of defects that may not be obvious based on a cursory glance, especially to an untrained eye.

The cost of having a home inspection done — often between $300 and $500 — pales in comparison to the cost of repairing a cracked, sinking foundation, or gutting the house to replace old knob and tube wiring.

For the purposes of this post, however, I want to address what are referred to as patent defects. In other words, defects anyone could see with an untrained eye, but might not.

Is housing in Fort Erie affordable for the average family?

Why list your home with Brent Jones?

Are realtors in Ontario a bunch of greedy pigs?

5 Things to Look for When Viewing an Older Home

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